Friday, October 28, 2011

Thursday, October 27, 2011

So I finally have a few pictures of the girls' new room. It has been mostly done for quite some time but I wanted to put a few fininshing touches on before I took some pictures. We were able to reuse quite a few things for their room. We already had a dresser, chanelier, table, curtains, cedar chest, and pictures. We only needed to get headboards, linens, and coat rack. I painted the room Eros Pink (Sherman Williams) and I'll tell you it is quite a vibrate color. I painted the inside of the girls closet a softer pink and built some shelves for their stuff. The linens and bed skirts are Lilly Pulitzer from Garnet Hill. The coat rack is from the Land of Nod. There are a few more things that need to be done but the girls are super happy with their new digs.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

The Critter's class headed to the pumpkin patch at their school last Wednesday. I wasn't able to go so I don't have much to say about it. The Critters each got to pick out a small pumpkin. We are heading to the pumpkin patch as a fam on Monday to pick out our big pumpkins and a white one for Abbey.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Rian, the Critters, and I headed down to Orlando for an impromptu mini-vacation. Hence my extended absence from the blog. We left Thursday evening and had an amazingly uneventful car ride, no hitting, meltdowns, or crying. You have to love that they can now focus on the DVD players. Poor Brother though, they watched Hello Kitty and Beauty and the Beast.

Friday, Kate surprised us with tickets to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. Now let me just say that I am not the biggest fan of things jumping out at me but Rian was super jazzed and I figured I could skip the haunted houses and ride the other rides. It didn't quite work like that. We went with Uncle Adam, Morgan (MoMo), and Matt.

Before stuff started jumping out at us.

First thing we did there was a haunted house, super. It wasn't all that bad, pretty cool actually, it was based off Edgar Allen Poe stories. Next we headed to the Simpson's ride (for you old timers, this used to be Back to the Future). I thought is was great, but I thought Rian was going to pass out halfway through the ride. Next we had a quick booze stop (for the of age folks), blood in a bag, basically a jello shot in a IV bag. After that we headed over to the Mummy roller coaster, it was pretty cool.

The girls and their "IVs."

After that we headed over to another haunted house. This one caught me a little off guard. The walking order was Adam, Morgan, Rian, me, and Matt. Well everyone had made it passed this particular spot aside from Matt and I. I had an inkling that something was coming but this caught me totally off guard. A whole wall dropped there was a blinding flash of light, and something jumped out at us. Needless to say I let out a scream and ran into the far wall and Matt just dropped to the floor. At that point I was about done with the haunted houses.

This was taken about 2:15am.

We hit one more haunted house after that which lead to a few more screams and then we headed to the new(er) roller coaster, the Rip Ride Rocket (I think). After an hour and a half wait we finally got on. I also had to coax Rian to actually ride it. This thing takes you straight up and then a huge drop into a loop twist. Well worth the wait. At this point is was 2:30 in the morning and the old folks were ready for bed. I looked at the clock and Rian and I made it into bed at 3:55am, well past our bedtime.

We apparently forgot to look at the radar for the weekend in Orlando as it rained all of Saturday. It was appropriate though as FSU sucked an egg versus Wake Forest. Sunday was the big day at Animal Kingdom. As we hit I-4 @ 8:30 in the morning the skies opened up. It was still a torrential downpour when we parked @ Animal Kingdom. After a quick peek at my phone I noticed that there would be a break in about a half an hour. Now keep in mind we were getting Disney for free so if we had to go home we wouldn't lose anything. The other folks around us in the parking lot were charging over to the tram line. I can just imagine those folks, "kids, you are gonna enjoy this day, hurricane or not, we just spend 90 bucks on each ticket, so get your poncho and mount up!" I did feel bad for the folks that had to pay for tickets and fight the rain.

After a brief wait we walk to the tram. We made it in the park after buying ponchos for everyone. Luckily, we only had about an hour of rain that morning and it really cooled everything off nicely.

We hit the otter tank first, for CarCar, of course. Next we headed over to the safari and let me tell you I have never seen so many animals before on that ride. I really think that we saw every type of animal that the ride offered. I did learn that the animals can get quite close to the ride, and Haddie was not a fan of the Rhino getting close. She still says "no Rhino!"

After a few more rides we hit up the Tusker House for lunch. It was a good meal and they had Indian food there so I was able to get my fill of curry, since Rian hates it. Next Rian, Jenna, and I headed over to the Himalayan roller coaster. Let me just say it was a blast, although I didn't realize that it went backwards. After some more walking around we decided to call it a day. The Critters were amazing, we hit the park around 9:30 that morning and left a little after 5 and they had no nap. This trip to Disney was much, much better than our last attempt which ended in three meltdowns. Note to self, one and a half is waaaaaaay to young to attempt Disney.

Here are a few (lots) of pictures from Disney:

Haddie and CarCar enjoying their Minnie ponchos.

Brother joining the picture in his Mickey poncho. (Can you tell CarCar is happy?)

Once again I think CarCar is excited.

Brother saw something, we just couldn't figure out what.

Had lunch here, it was good.

Hippos for CarCar.

A big kitty according to Haddie.

An elephant.

Giraffes for CarCar.

The Critters looking @ a tiger (another big kitty).

I asked them who they were calling and they said, "Amy and Macy," the Crittersitters.